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Texas native and former teen star Lisa Whelchel didn’t expect to have any problems playing “Survivor: Philippines” as ruthlessly as necessary.

Things didn’t go as planned.

But Whelchel, who was born in Littlefield and found stardom playing Blair Warner on 1980s sitcom “The Facts of Life,” still managed to make it to the final three contestants on the 25th season of the CBS reality show.

Whelchel was chosen the fan favorite castaway, “Survivor” host Jeff Probst announced during Sunday’s live finale, winning $100,000. But she came up short in the vote among her fellow players, losing out to Iowa sex therapist Denise Stapley for the big $1 million prize.

On Monday, Whelchel said the difficulties of playing the game to win were harder than she anticipated.

“I’m not going to give all my money to my kids in Monopoly just because I’m a good mom, so I didn’t expect that I wouldn’t be able to play ruthlessly,” Whelchel said.

“(But) the conflict between this deep, lifelong and very real desire to be a reflection and representative and channel for God’s love and light and ... in order to win this game, those were hindrances,” she said. “The internal struggle (was) between choosing to be a competitive player and choosing to want to have a bigger picture in mind of being a witness for the Lord.”

Those conflicts played out throughout the season, with Whelchel frequently in tears during her private interview sessions and openly discussing strategy even during Tribal Council with players targeted for elimination.

“It was rough watching every episode,” Whelchel said. “I had kind of a hangover every Thursday that it took me a while to shake — the memory of all that I went through, just feeling it again by watching it on TV.

“There are times I would love to be able to blame something on the editing, but the truth is, they caught me in all my glory, and sometimes, that glory should have been covered up a bit.”

By the end of the season, Whelchel said she felt like she had resolved how to play the game and still keep true to her Christian faith.

“It’s OK to be human and OK to be sometimes good and sometimes bad, even in the context of this game and even not in the context of this game,” Whelchel said during Sunday’s finale. “That’s what Christianity is about, is acceptance.”

Landing on the show came during a particularly rough patch: Her divorce to her husband of 24 years was final just nine days before she left for “Survivor.”

Her emotionalism appeared to put a target on her in the game’s early days, but her teen celebrity — which she expected to be a liability — barely came up until Sunday’s finale.

Whelchel said only Stapley and returning players Jonathan Penner and Michael Skupin recognized her from her sitcom days.

“There were a lot of young people on that tribe,” she said. “I just assumed ... that all it would take was one person recognizing me and telling everybody. I never dreamed that somebody would keep that a secret.”

And now that the show has ended, Whelchel said she’ll soon be chasing those show-business dreams again.

“I’m moving to California,” she said. “I’d love to get another sitcom. And I’m very excited because I get to do some co-hosting with Jeff (Probst) on his (daily talk) show.

“That all hit me a couple of years ago after the kids had all graduated and were leaving the nest,” she said. “I had to ask that proverbial question of what do I want to do with my life.”